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News notes

• Critic reviews of AEW Fight Forever, which was released today, are mixed. The PS5 version currently has 31 reviews counted by Metacritic with an average rating of 63 out of 100. We don’t know information about sales activity for the game. Like with WWE’s 2K releases, I expect news on sales will be little or none. We talked with Insider Gaming reporter Mike Straw about AEW: Fight Forever on today’s Pollock & Thurston.
• Free subscriptions to Peacock for many Comcast customers were scheduled to end this week, however, friend of Wrestlenomics Nicholas Deleon, who is a Comcast internet customer, received a note from Comcast giving him free access to Peacock Premium for two years through June 25, 2025, which seems indicative of a broader perk being given to customers. Paid Peacock subscribers totaled 22 million, as of Comcast’s last disclosure for its first quarter earnings report, up from 20 million in the fourth quarter of last year. Comcast will report second-quarter earnings and probably give an update on Peacock subscribers on July 27. WWE has reported percentage increases in PLE viewership from the same event of the prior year, consistent with Peacock’s continued increase in paid subscribers. Obviously, viewing of WWE PLEs may include paying subscribers as well as those getting the service for free through service providers Comcast or Cox. It’ll be interesting to see if WWE continues to report year-over-year percentage differences for PLEs as year-over-year growth in the reach of Peacock slows. I expect WWE only to report those deltas while they remain positive.
• AEW confirmed last night that it will run its annual Grand Slam event at Arther Ashe Stadium in Queens on Wednesday, September 20.

TV ratings: AEW Dynamite, June 28

AEW Dynamite last night on TBS, was watched by 809,000 viewers on average, including about 316,000 aged 18 to 49, for a 0.24 P18-49 rating.

Dynamite ranked #3 in P18-49 among cable originals for the day, according to Showbuzz Daily. Including broadcast primetime, it ranked #11.

This was Dynamite’s lowest total viewership since May 3 and its lowest P18-49 viewership in its normal time slot since June 24, 2020, three years ago.

Compared to last week, Dynamite was down 10% in total viewership. Among viewers 18 to 49, viewership was down 28% from last week’s 436,000.

The NHL Draft led cable on ESPN with a 0.25 P18-49 rating.

Viewer counts in thousands, calculated from national ratings, for this week’s episode with difference versus the median of the last 28 days in parentheses:

P2+: 809 (-10%)

P18-49: 316 (-24%)

M18-49: 228 (-21%)

F18-49: 88 (-28%)

P18-34: 130 (-25%)

M18-34: 89 (-18%)

F18-34: 41 (-34%)

P35-49: 186 (-23%)

M35-49: 139 (-22%)

F35-49: 47 (-21%)

F12-34: 47 (-34%)

M12-34: 105 (-12%)

P25-54: 389 (-20%)

P50+: 445 (+7%)

Most-viewed YouTube videos from Dynamite, as of 3pm today:

STING DID WHAT? Sting & Darby Allin vs Painmaker Jericho & Guevara: 459,567

“Jungle Boy” NO MORE? Jack Perry explains his actions at Forbidden Door!: 232,045

PURE VIOLENCE! Jon Moxley & Ishii in a SLUG FEST!: 112,629

Friends or enemies? Hangman Page & Young Bucks vs Dark Order: 91,714

Monsters, Magic & Mayhem! Orange Cassidy, Keith Lee & Vikingo vs JAS: 84,583

“Painmaker” Chris Jericho Entrance!: 67,233

Ruby Soho sends a message to Dr. Britt Baker DMD with a statement victory!: 62,379

Forbidden Door Recap: Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay: 54,820

Forbidden Door Recap: Bryan Danielson vs Kazuchika Okada: 30,894

This ratings report was written with the assistance of automated programs created by me, then manually edited.

Subscribers have exclusive access to the Wrestlenomics Viewership Spreadsheet.

Brandon Thurston
brandon@wrestlenomics.com